Where there's nothing
by Saphiress
Summary: Yukimura, Enma and Sanada have know each other for years, when the formers start dating Sanada keeps his true feelings to himself, but when Enma breaks down during a match against Yukimura, the infection she's been fighting becomes a disease
1. Chapter 1

_I was watching the last few episodes of Prince of tennis when I thought, what would happen if Yukimura played against someone less determined than Echizen Ryoma, someone normal and more human? This is the result, a story. Sorry I haven't updated much; VCE is a pain in the ass. Just a short story, not sure if I'll make it into a series though…_

Yukimura Seiichi believes in absolute victory, a match without a win is useless, Enma believes in the journey, the end result is not what matters but the road you took to get there. Despite their difference in opinion the two are best friends from a young age, later becoming what looks like the perfect couple, an absolute understanding, until the day they play a match against each other.

**Where there's nothing Chapter 1 (maybe)**

The red light remained on above the operating room door, Yukimura sat outside while Sanada paced, the third demon had stayed at school to watch over the club.

"Is she going to be alright?" asked the Child of god, but Sanada had no answer, he'd been keeping a secret from Yukimura, and now, because of it, his childhood friend was now drifting in and out of consciousness.

"I don't know," he answered finally.

"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Yukimura, still wearing his sport jersey from when he'd changed to play a match not even half an hour ago.

"She didn't want you to know," Sanada answered.

"Then why did she tell you?" This was a fair question; it seemed ridiculous that someone would choose to tell Sanada anything over Yukimura.

"She didn't, not willingly at least," he replied. He recalled spotting her clenching her and struggling to breathe hiding within the shadows casted by the male locker room, it was the one place where no one would look to find her, she was always complaining about the lack of hygiene anywhere near those walls. "She told me it was just class 3 tuberculosis, there was radiographic evidence of the disease but...it was just a latent infection, she told me there was less than a 10% chance of it progressing into the disease."

But, I guess, when the two of us played tennis, being cut from all her senses…" Yukimura trailed off; he didn't want to think of it, he didn't want to think it was his fault she was now fighting for her life.

"An infection becomes a disease when the bacilli overcomes the immune system and begin to multiply," Said Sanada remembering her telling him so. "There's no way this is your fault."

"SHE'S IN THERE BECAUSE OF ME!" shouted Yukimura standing up, he gasped and sat back down. "I'm sorry Sanada." His hand was trembling, he couldn't believe himself, _his_ hand was trembling, and his mind replayed their match over and over. _She'd lost the moment the moment she had lost her sense of touch and hearing, she waited, and listened, during a match her eyes would always wonder but her mind stayed fixed on the match. There was no need for him to take away her sight, sense of smell or even the taste of the apple sweet which still lingered on her lips. He remembered her dropping the racket on the ground, the way she stumbled to find her place…the sound of her screams._

He swallowed. _The sound of her voice when she screamed, he'd dropped his racket and ran across the court but the moment he was near her, she pulled away. She was terrified of him, her breathing was rapid and her eyes wide, even when her senses returned, this state did not change, but worsened instead, she was leaning against Sanda's support coughing up blood._

The red light turned off, the doctors had installed a temporary pace maker to help her weaken heart, her lungs were struggling but there was nothing they could do, they said. They described the feeling she now felt as worse than drowning and being crushed to death combined. Her lungs were now being crushed as they struggled to breathe. Despite those saying their tennis match had nothing to do with her condition, her body was a time bomb, it was going to give way sooner or later, this did not make Yukimura feel better. But the worse was yet to come.

"En," said Sanada as he opened the door to her hospital room, she looked away from the window and smiled at him, she was pale, dark circles under her eyes and she'd lost a large amount of weight in a short time.

"Gen," she replied, her face lighting up. Sanada forced himself to smile back, it felt strange but she'd always complained about his stoic expression, even if it was the slightest time, if it helped, it was worth it, and it did help, her smile brightened, the smallest amount of life returned to her blue eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked walking closer, he had brought her a large bar of hazelnut chocolate, it wasn't the traditional get well gift, but she hated flowers, she was once attacked by a bee when picking flowers and had been terrified since.

"Like shit," she answered with a sigh, she used to swear quite a bit until Yukimura began correcting her coarse tongue, it created a strange combination. "Remember that time we climbed up a tree and I fell?" Sanada nodded, she'd broken her right arm, two ribs and bruised another three. "It fells like that but, then the pain was constant, I got used to it, but…now, it comes and goes, my throat hurts from all the coughing and I'm attached to this," she indicated to he drip and several other needles in her body. "Now, I can't even be bother to changed the TV channel because every time I move I have to untangle myself from four tubes and I've spent the past few hours watching re-runs of House." Sanada chuckled at her predicament. "Not funny, I'm in serious agony," but she couldn't help but smile at the foolishness of her own troubles.

"This might help," Sanada reached for the remote and changed the channel to the ABC tennis round robin, she snatched the remote so quickly out of his hands he couldn't react and she changed it back to house.

"No thanks, I'm good," she assured him but winched as a needle moved and poked her flesh. "I'm currently on like five different antibotics, Ethambutol, soniazid, pyrazinamide, rifampicin and streptomycin. They're thinking of putting me on Rifabutin but it's impractically expensive." Sanada counted the needles in her body and cords wrapped around her, there were only three not including her IV and the heart monitor. "Three by injection, one by pill and another through gas inhalation, they said if they were all the same my immune system would overload." She smiled, "I'm fine, really, and the treatment will take about nine or so months and after that I'll be good as new." Sanada's frowned deepened. "What did I do now? I'm counting seven wrinkles, oh! Eight now!"

"Can you still play tennis?" he asked noticing her response to the ABC round robin.

"Of course," she assured him. "But, I can't handle long matches, it not like it infected the central nervous system, bones and joints or anything," she pointed to her chest and neck. "Just the pleura and scrofula." Sanada didn't know even know which was which, or where they were.

"I haven't seen you play in a tournament for almost a year now, was-"

"No," she cut in. "Gen I'm not like you, I don't define myself with the victory of the match, for me it's the match itself regardless of the outcome…I can do that in an unofficial match, I don't need a title to my name, that and I couldn't be fucked going." Sanada snorted.

"How rich, this coming from the person who won the single female kantou and national junior high tournament in her first year," he said. "I was wondering why the No.1 female didn't participate in the district tournament last week and here's the reason, because you couldn't be bothered." She smiled and shrugged. "There's someone else here to see you," he said. She looked behind him to see Yukimura standing quietly by the door, so quiet she didn't notice he was there. "He was worried about you, you know-" but before he could finish she screamed.

"Enma?" Sanada stood up as she tried to move as far away as possible from Yukimura, pulling at her needles she retreated to the far corner of the room, the alarm went off the moment her heart monitor was disconnected, she was now huddled up in a corner, her eyes closed and her hands covering her ears. Yukimura walked towards her but she curled tighter into a ball, Sanada pulled him back. "Don't," he said. "You'll make it worse." Reluctantly Yukimura nodded and left the room, Sanada bent down beside her trembling figure and held her tightly. Doctors and nurses rushed in to see what had happened.

The sight of her pitiful state created a knot in his chest. The one who was once regarded as Japan's top female junior high tennis player was now trembling in his arms, her voice too dry and sore to scream anymore.

No," he heard her whispered to herself over and over. "I don't want to go back there, not that scary place where there's nothing, never, I won't play anymore, don't make me, leave me alone, I won't play anymore…so please, just leave me alone…"

His heart fell further when he realised she was talking about tennis.

_**A/N: The end, if it becomes a series I was thinking of this. **_

_Enma is left broken and mentally unstable, and practically flees to England for treatment, almost a year has past and Enma returns, paler and thinner than before, she transfers to Hyotei to avoid the Child of God, but due to protocol, she is forced to make once last visit to Rikkai before her transfer is approved. When Sanada spots her what will he do? Tell Yukimura, who despite his ever calm demeanour misses her desperately? Or keep it to himself to protect her?_

_**What do ya think?**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"There is no way," said Kirihara between laughs, Niou shook his head.

"I'm serious Akaya, just ask any chick," he assured him.

"Alright," Kirihara looked around the school grounds to see a female about his age, walking up to her he asked. "Excuse me, can I ask you a question?"

"I'll give you two," she said turning around. "Go ahead."

"Is it weird for someone to go eat brunch by themselves?" he asked her.

"No," Kirihara gave Niou a triumphant smile, "of course not, while we're at it I'd love to know where you get your hair done! It's just so…springy."

"Oh, well, there this salon at-" Kirihara cut himself off, after spending a year with Niou he had a feeling whenever someone mocked him. "That was uncalled for."

"You can't blame her," said Niou throwing an arm over him. "I mean brunch is just so-"

"Girly," she finished for him, they both smirked.

"Maybe you two should have a play date where you go to her house and braid each other's hair," mocked Niou.

"We could watch the Notebook together and hopefully our periods will sync," she added.

"That was mean," said Kirihara while Niou cracked up laughed, she shrugged.

"You were the one who spoke to me," she told him. "If I gave off the vibe I'm nice…I'm sorry," she said with all earnest in her eyes. "It wasn't intentional."

"I bow to the queen," said Niou bowing deeply, she curtsied back and left.

"She's not a nice person," said Kirihara in mock hurt.

"I am!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Just takes a nice person to bring it out."

xxx

"Hurry up!" shouted Sanada at the group of running males. "My grandma could run those laps faster than you!"

"Considering she was probably the wife of Satan probably," muttered Niou, Marui smiled and gave a feeble attempt of a laugh.

"Last lap!" He shouted. "If you don't hurry up I'm adding another 10!" Groans echoed the oval. When the tennis players finally finished they stood panting beside the tennis court. "Your performance was sloppy, another 5 laps!"

"Now, now," said a female voice behind them, Niou looked behind Sanada to se the blue eyed female from before. "I'm not sure if, when you were born-no spurned from the lap of Satan if your daddy forget to give you a hug before booting you on your way but you can't just dump another 5 laps on someone just because you want to," she said in a disapproving tone.

"Yes I can," he answered, his face showed recognition, and the frown lines deepened. She smiled sweetly.

"Sorry," she said to Niou. "I tried."

"Why are you standing here! Get moving!" shouted Sanada, almost immediately they began running.

"You know her?" asked Marui.

"We teamed up in a fight," replied Niou.

"What fight? You ganged up on me," remarked Kirihara.

"Well, Enma," said Sanada with a small frown as he walked towards the blue eyed female. "Since you went ahead and took several pits of my blood when you left I'm assuming your back because you're here for my dignity." She continued to smile, the hospital was running low on blood during the time of her surgery and as they had the same blood type he'd donated quite a large amount of blood for her. She'd known it was him just by the disapproving tone of his voice but it was nice to see his face, even if it was frowning. "Well, I hate to say it, but I gave that to your mother when she begged me to get in the sand box with you." That was an exaggeration, her mother hadn't begged him but HIS mother had threatened him.

"It's fine," she replied. "I don't have room for it anyway what with your testicles in my trophy case and all."

Sanada nodded his head in defeat. "Good to finally see you face to face again," he said bending down to hug her, Enma wasn't short, he was just extremely tall.

"Not me, your face was a lot more handsome with the poor quality of your webcam concealing all those wrinkles and frown lines on that mug of yours," she answered, hugging him back. "The last I heard of you, was from my brother saying you slapped one of your seniors when he refused to do 20 laps around the oval," she said letting him go. "Honestly, I've always wondered why you look as if you've got a stick up your arse, I had theories but now I'm certain," she pressed one finger to his forehead. "It's those bloody wrinkles, it makes you look like an old man you stump, here try this." She clapped her hands together and widened her eyes as much as she could. "It's been sooo long! I'm soooo glad to seee you again!" she said in a ridiculously girly voice, he just looked down at her with a look of slight disgust. She smirked and dropped her hands. "Tough crowd, all well, worth a shot."

"You're ridiculous," he told her.

"I know."

"Borderline crazy," he added. She held up her hand for silence and reached into her bag and pulled out a wrapped package.

"For you," she said. He opened it, revealing a certificate deeming her in perfect mental health from an institute in England.

"Oh, how nice, you certified mentally sane," he commented, she nodded happily. "You got a certificate," he said, she nodded again with the same expression. "And you framed it."

"For you," she repeated with an overly innocent expression.

"How lovely, I'll hang it next to my poster of Sailor moon," he said in a tired voice.

"For you, I knew you'd need confirmation," she told him in a serious voice.

"Well, it's lovely, just lovely," he leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Thank you, I think you're the only one here in this school certified mentally sane. Speaking of school, since you're sane again, does that mean your attending class, you name's still on the roll and you even have your own desk and chair, although it's been unused for almost a year so it's a little dusty." Her smiled faded a little.

"Actually, I'm transferring out of here," she told him.

"To where?"

"Seigaku," she said quietly.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes," she told him.

"Because if your kidding this isn't funny, Hyotei or Shitenhouji is funny but not Seigaku," he warned her.

"Quite serious," she assured him.

"Why?" Enma looked away.

"You know why…"

"He's not here, he went to the," Sanada cut himself off. "Which of course you knew, which is why you're here now. En, you can't blame him, it wasn't his fault, theses part few months he's been missing you so much he has a picture of you in his pocket-" Enma looked at him startled. "-in his wallet which is in his pocket," she nodded miming an 'Oh!' noise. "Damn it, you can't just up and leave, do you remember the last thing you said to him?" Enma frowned, honestly not remembering. "You scream at him! You practically begged for him to stay away, you threw your Rikkai jersey out the window and cut the strings of your racket!"

Enma thought for a moment. "You know, that sounds about right," she agreed. Sanada continued to frown at her. "Gen, please, don't ask me to speak to him, I-I can't handle it."

"I though you were now 100% mentally sane." Enma laughed as he waved the picture fame in front of her.

"I am…kinda, actually, that only applied to a Seii free environment," she said weakly. "Gen please, don't tell him, I can't, I can't… not yet, I'm not ready. I'm not like you, despite all I mock, your mentally strong, you have your values and you stick to them…me? I run away, I ran away almost a year ago and I'm still running. You don't know what it was like, maybe you do, but like I said, your strong, your disciplined, hell you're the one who always tells me to stop my…what was the phrase?"

"Way wall."

"That's the one, you're the one who used to always tell me to stop my way wall ways and focus, I have, I quite tennis and I'm focusing on my studies, Seigaku is close to Hyotei's high school campus so after I graduate I'm transferring again and I'm going studying medicines at T university, I've got it all planed, and none of those schools are more than a half an hour walk from my house."

"Half an hour? Wait did you-"

"I'm living with my brother now," she told him. "See? I've got it all planned, so I'm all set."

"En, you can't keep running away from this, it wasn't his fault, you know it, and so do I but Yukimura still hasn't forgiven himself and you avoiding him not helping."

"I'm sorry," was all she said.

"Sorry? You practically fled to England and when you finally come back here you are leaving him again!" he shouted at her, she didn't flinch but lowered her gaze, she was used to being lectured by him, it used to be a daily thing. "Do you know how worried I was! He was! When they transferred you to a medical institute in England? I thought you were dying! They had you strapped to the bed and sedated almost 27/7 after that incident! DO you know how I felt every time I saw you? You were so shot up you called me Superman!"

"Did I?" she asked, there was a small smile at this information. "And what was Seii? The Green Goblin?" Sanada couldn't help a small smile at his, breaking all the tension and anger he'd built up. "Gen, I'm sorry, if it makes you feel better, I want to thank you."

"For what?" asked Sanada sensing one of her trademark wind ups.

"When I was in the loony bin…" she looked down. "You called me every day and…you talked to me like I was a friend, not a crazy person. It helped, a lot," she reached for his hand. "Thank you, really, thank you, I don't think…" she didn't finish.

"Great."

"What?"

"I had a whole speech prepared to yell at you with, but here you are putting me in a good mood."

"You? Good mood?" she asked with a frown, he nodded in understanding, his happy face and angry face were basically the same.

"You know, you have to stop and come back eventually," he said, she smiled sadly and shook her head.

"No I don't."

"YOU STILL NOT DONE WITH THOSE LAPS!"

A/N: Yay or Nay?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Sanada sighed and shook his head when he spotted Yukimura walking towards them. "Code blue," he said. Enma turned around to see the captain of the rikkai tennis club on the other side of the tennis court. "En," said Sanada but there was no reply, she was frozen. "Damn it," with one arm he lifted her over his shoulder and carried her away.

"Bucho!" exclaimed Kirihara running towards him. "I thought you went to the hospital."

"There was some confusion over my appointment so it was cancelled," replied Yukimura completely oblivious to the fact Sanada was running away as quickly as he could with Enma over one shoulder.

Sanada finally stopped when he reached the front entrance and placed her feet back on the ground, he looked at her, she was shaking, her eyes tearing up. She wasn't ready.

"You okay?" he asked, Enma shakily reached into her bag for a white bottle in her pocket and swallowed two tablets, taking a sip of water from her dink bottle she sighed and smiled.

"Yeah," she told him. "Damn it, I didn't get the forms I needed."

"Get them another time," replied Sanada. She frowned at him.

"I need them to officially enrol in Hyotei," she replied. Another wrinkle appeared on Sanada's forehead.

"So you **were** kidding about Seigaku?" he asked she nodded.

"Of course, Tezuka Kunimitsu goes there, I wouldn't betray you, not like that anyway, I'd be sneakier," she assured him. "Although from what I've seen, he's pretty hot."

"No!" The words came out more forceful than Sanada intended. "Sorry."

"I'm kidding, don't go that way anymore remember?" she assured him. "You should have seen the hell my brother went through to get me enrolled."

"Not surprised, and I'm sure the hell he gave the school board was ten times worse since he's just a teacher with a over 35 million dollar trust fund enrolling his sister who's almost twenty years younger born of an affair his father had with an underage 17 year old hostess," replied Sanada. Enma smiled and nodded cheerfully.

"Crazy right?" she agreed. Her origins had never really been much of a secret between them even thought she'd forbidden him to call her by her last name.

"Your normal," replied Sanada, Enma snorted. "Well normal enough for Rikkai, but Hyotei is full on crazy. Spoilt rich brats gathered together in one place, their destructive ability is comparable to hurricane Katrina." Sanada paused and looked at Enma up down once. "You know what? Forget that, you have the destructive ability of a hydrogen bomb."

"Is that a good thing?"

"For you, it's as close a description as anything," replied Sanada.

"Awww, thank you," she replied. "In that case you are as scary and formidable as my late grand father."

"Please don't compare me to a dead person," said Sanada. "Although, thank you, I quite liked your grand father." Enma frowned as she remembered the old man who had taught Sanada and herself aikido and kendo; of course Sanada would like him. They'd spend every second week playing shogi and go, in which as he was Enma's friend she'd have to participate in as well.

"I'll tell you what, the next time Yukimura has an appointment I'll call you and tell you," offered Sanada, Enma was very close to hugging him when her phone rang.

"Hello?" she said into her mobile. "Oh! Jamie, what's wrong? Sure…I'll be there…where? Ah! No, I've never been…Delilah sounds like a lame name for a club… yeah I know what'll happen if my brother heard that…bye, see you tonight."

"Jamie? Who names their son Jamie?" asked Sanada. "Back in Japan for how long and already…"

"You want to come? The new bar Delilah is opening tonight drinks on the house and I know how much you like scotch and gin," offered Enma.

"Maybe, Niou-kun said something about a bar as well," replied Sanada.

"Well, I've got an outfit to buy, so see you tonight…maybe?"

"Yeah," replied Sanada. "It was good to see you in the flesh again."

"You too," replied Enma as she turned around and walked away, Sanada watched her, where was the lazy and who seemed constantly hungry but good hearted friend he remembered?

"By the way!" shouted Enma pausing and turning around. "Jamie's a girl!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"You asked her out!" exclaimed Marui as he, Yagyuu, Krihara and Yanagi changed out of their regular jersey and back into their uniform in the tennis club locker room.

"That not nice person?" asked Kirihara as he failed at his attempt to do up his tie, usually he'd ask his mother to do it for him and then throughout the week he'd only loosen it when taking it off, this morning in a hurry he'd accidentally yanked the entire thing off.

"How'd it go? What the crazy chick say?" asked Marui. Niou sighed as he fiddled with his bleach hair to get every strand to stand perfectly.

"_Hey!" shouted Niou as he chased after Enma. "Hey! Wait up!" Finally she stopped and turned around._

"_Did Gen send you?" she asked._

"_Gen?" he echoed, slightly confused. "Who's that? No, never mind that, can I have your number?" he asked. Enma remained silent as her brain process the information._

_She laughed._

"_What? No, no way," she replied bluntly._

"_What? Why?" he asked giving her his very best puppy eyes, it worked every time._

"_No, for one thing you're not my type." Except this time. "Sorry."_

"_What is your type?"_

"_The other 50 well actually knowing my 55% percent of the human population."_

"_Why?" he asked, Enma smiled._

"_You really want to know?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Well, where do I start?" she began looking him up and down. "Well, you're a tennis regular, so you've got the inflated ego, the god complex and that superior sense in which makes you believe you're better than anyone. You're cute and you very much know that, that dyed hair screams daddy issues and those earrings tell me you get drunk and go on one night stands once too often. So pick your favourite one." _

Marui and Krihara busted into laughter, even Yagyuu and Yanagi couldn't help a smile. Niou sighed again.

"I'd go with the god complex," said Marui.

"So? What'd you say in reply?" asked Yagyuu pushing his glasses up. Niou flinched just remembering it.

"_So what if I quit the tennis club? Will you go out with me then?" he'd asked, she laughed, the sound alone made him feel insecure._

"_You barely know me, so why would you do that?" she asked. "And let's be realistic, you won't quit, you'd probably lie and say something along the lines of 'for you, anything' and once you got into my pants you'd forget my name and face." Niou flinched._

"Please say you walked away," said Yagyuu shaking his head.

"Please say you tried again," said Kirihara.

"So? What did you do?" asked Yanagi. Niou closed his eyes.

"_How about a week from now? Let's get to know each other better," he said to her. Enma rolled her eyes._

"_Listen you horny toad-" _Kirihara and Marui laughed._ "-it doesn't matter wether it's a week from now or ten weeks from now, no means no."_

"Well you tried," said Yagyuu patting his shoulder.

"Yeah, well there's just something about that girl," said Marui. "She's normal, like, human looking and all, but when you talk to her, she like talks down to you, it's like talking to a pretty version of Sanada only she's more demeaning and has this emasculating effect on people, well on me at least…"

"The devils incarnate," Kirihara finished for him. "If we search her I'm almost certain we'll find a 007 or a 666."

"That's illegal," remarked Yagyuu. "It's borderline sexual harassment."

"Borderline?" echoed Niou. "Damn it, then we're not trying hard enough."

"Yes, the devils incarnate," agreed Marui ignoring them. "Only people with balls of steel like Sanada and Yukimura can even stand a meter's proximity of her." Kirihara choked on that image.

"Yeah, and even Sanada seems to have trouble around her," agreed Yagyuu remembering seeing the vice-captain carrying her hurriedly away with what seemed to be a panicked face.

"No!" said Niou firmly. "I'm not giving up." A small cheer escaped from Marui.

"What!"

"Yeah you heard me Yagyuu, I'm not taking no for an answer, I'm getting that yes!"

"I have a feeling he won't live out the month," said Kirihara quietly.

"I have a feeling he won't live out the _**week**_," replied Yanagi.

"What do you think she'd say?" asked Marui quietly.

"He's a spoilt brat who doesn't understand the word no," guessed Yanagi.


End file.
